Palm Harbor Home Haunt announced $20,000 raised for a Pinellas County charity called Homeless Empowerment Program of Clearwater.

For the past five years, a father and son have scared thousands and offered donations from their guests. The charity helps men, women, families and veterans with critical support services so they can find a home of their own.

“Obviously it shows what an incredible family this is,” said Becca Adams of HEP, “but it’s a really cool way to show other people that you can have fun to help the community.”

Mike Long is happy to give us a tour of this home haunt, taking us through a creepy door attached to a 25-foot tall church.

“You are seeing how the sausage is made behind the scenes,” he explained.

In case any guests are too scared to walk through the church door, a high school aged scare actor will take them through the door. It’s usually a zombie bride of some creepy sort.

“She’ll invite them back in and show them the inside of the door, which is my son’s door when he grew up and they always laugh at that,” he said.

What do they laugh? It’s filled with kid’s stickers. No antique knockers or stone façade, just a door belonging to Mike’s son, Andrew.

“So everything that you see here is designed, imagined built by my son Andrew Long,” said Long. “And we started this about seven years ago with a father and son project.”

Long is filled with pride. Not only has he raised money for charity, he did it with a massive increase in precious father-son time.

“It’s very satisfying. You know when we started this, we never thought people would show up and obviously over the years, it’s gotten so much larger,” said Long.

Finally, it helped get Andrew into college. It was part of the portfolio for his study in architecture.

This will be the last year of the haunt as Andrew prepares for his final year of undergraduate school.

Haunt for HEP
3425 Brian Rd S, Palm Harbor, FL 34685
Saturday 10/29 from 6:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sunday 10/30 from 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Monday 10/31 from 6:30 p.m. -10:00 p.m.+